Dear Editor,
In his letter (‘Drive the speed limit and bumps not a problem’; January 24) Michael O’Hanlon suggests that victims of the ill-conceived and constructed speed bumps on Lakeshore Drive, euphemistically called ‘raised intersections,’ are responsible for their own misfortune. If motorists didn’t speed they wouldn’t have problems. Since most people occasionally speed Mr. O’Hanlon’s solution is to have police enforce speed limits. In all this Mr. O’Hanlon is focusing on symptoms rather than root issues.
There are conceptual and practical design problems on Lakeshore Drive. The bumps serve no practical purpose other than force traffic off Lakeshore Drive. Their bloated configuration is visually unattractive. The raised design makes the approach from cottage area streets steeper and turns onto Lakeshore Drive more difficult and dangerous. Snowplowing is more difficult.
Some bumps can be traversed at the posted 30 km/h although not necessarily comfortably; on others traveling more than 20 km/h is to risk slamming the front of one’s car on the pavement. Visitors naturally assume they can go the posted 30 km/h and are surprised at the sharp slopes on the gentlest bumps and appalled and probably enraged at the violence of the worst of them. The irony of redevelopment is that the joy of driving into town along the lake has been all but destroyed.
Pushing more traffic onto 50 Avenue is a poor solution if it depends on Municipal Enforcement (ME) actually enforcing speed limits on either route. 50th Avenue has become a virtual speedway with many motorists traveling an estimated 50-60 km/h with occasional miscreants apparently reaching near-highway speeds.
Protesting speeding problems to ME, the Mayor and Town Council is fruitless, in my case eliciting reports and ‘statistics’ obviously intended confuse and frustrate inquiries rather than shed light. Examples include tables of speed averages comprised of other averages, data with entire sections missing and glaringly contradictory statements and conclusions. One can only conclude that Town Council refuses to enforce 50 Avenue speed limits as a matter of policy. One is more likely to see police hassling tourists for petty offences in Centennial Park parking lots than enforcing speed limits on busy streets.
Mr. O’Hanlon suggests that enforcing the Lakeshore Drive speed limit would make it safer for those now obliged to walk to the beach from 50th Avenue. One wonders which beach he has in mind given that high lake water levels have claimed all of them.
Town Council has acknowledged flawed bump design/construction and to its credit has pledged to correct it. Let them get at it at regardless of costs!
Everett Gratrix.
Sylvan Lake